FIA to Impose Time Penalties for Unsafe Releases After Ferrari Incident

During last weekend’s German Grand Prix, an incident occurred involving Charles LeClerc. As it turned out, when he pitted, the Ferrari team released him right in the path of a startled Romain Grosjean. The good news was that, an accident was averted, but the bad news was that Ferrari still copped a fine.

However, not many teams were too thrilled that Ferrari got away with just a simple fine. So, the stewards have agreed to begin imposing time penalties for unsafe releases, in the wake of the backlash.

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Under normal circumstances, an unsafe release normally sees the driver get slapped with a five-second time penalty. The penalty can be executed in two ways, either during their next pit-stop or have the five second added to their time, post-race. Oddly enough, in Germany the stewards simply fined Ferrari €5,000, for their error, which almost certainly did not go down well with the fans either.

For his part, Romain Grosjean did well to avoid clattering LeClerc, though he had no issues barging into his teammate Kevin Magnussen. The Frenchman nearly came to a standstill to avoid a collision in a packed pitlane. The gaggle of cars came into the pitlane in droves as changeable weather wreaked havoc on the circuit.

After the pandemonium on track died down, it was time for the storm off-the track to rage. Unsurprisingly, when teams found out that Ferrari simply had a measly fine, they were all livid. There were complaints that a fine would not serve as a deterrent, as it pales in comparison to the millions that teams spend each season.

Race winner Max Verstappen said, “It’s completely wrong, if you get a fine, everybody will do it. I think it’s not fair. To say they gave me the penalty purely because we touched, I think that is also not fair, you’re still releasing the car knowing there is a car in the fast lane.”

Verstappen himself, was on the receiving end of a penalty for an unsafe release when he nearly collided with Valtteri Bottas in Monaco. It was worth noting that the Dutchman received a 5-second time penalty for his troubles.

The matter was addressed in the team manager meeting ahead of the Hungarian GP this weekend and it’s believed the stewards have agreed going forward that time penalties will be be the default penalty for unsafe releases.

“I think they have spoken in the managers meeting about it,” added Verstappen. “Let’s see what they are going to do about it now.

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“How big was the fine? 5,000? That’s peanuts for a team. They really don’t care to pay that. I think it’s completely wrong to do that, especially if you talk about safety, it’s not correct.”

Some trolls would have thought that the FIA were being too lenient on Ferrari with this fine. For now though, the entire focus will be on this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix as Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton aim to bounce back. Meanwhile, Red Bull and Ferrari will be bolstered by the fact that Mercedes are not invulnerable.